(flickr photo by massdistraction)
The pressure on buyers making an offer or waiting for a seller’s response often can cause them to lose sleep.
What they may well forget is how intense the pressure can be on a seller as well, whether hoping for a good offer or deciding on accepting one that already has been made.
A recent experience underscored the point, which centered on a two-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side.
I saw the place first and urged my buyer to look at it as well. She did on the Sunday we discussed the apartment and wanted her husband to check it out any of the following weekdays as well, so I e-mailed the listing broker (twice), texted him, left a voicemail and finally reached him on my second call after two days of no response.
According to the listing broker (who might have thought to make an interim reply), some 150 potential buyers had visited the co-op, originally listed for under $750,000 because of condition so poor that it mimicked an estate sale.
He said he had spoken at length with the seller the morning that I reached him. The seller, the broker added, was considering an offer, would decide how to handle it two days hence and didn’t want to endure any more showings.
“To be honest, he’s too stressed out by all the activity,” the broker remarked.
I managed to persuade him to make a tentative commitment for the upcoming Monday morning anyway and, miraculously, located a trusted contractor who would join my buyers that day.
Friday afternoon. we finally received confirmation that our visit was on.
After the broker let us in, we found the owner sitting in his living room and established a good rapport with him, giving me hope that he might prefer my buyers over the others in the end. I have to say that he didn’t seem all that stressed.
As my clients and the contractor huddled in each room, I had a hushed conversation with the listing broker in another. Noting that price was everything to his seller, the broker gave me an idea of what would prove to be a winning amount.
Given the contractor’s ballpark estimate for essential work, it seemed like my clients could manage the purchase at that price.
But it was not to be. In the end, they decided that buying the apartment would be too much of a stretch.
Whether the seller finally was able to relax, I don’t know.
As for my clients, they can sleep soundly at night knowing that they made the right decision.
Tomorrow: Getting down
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Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022
M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201
Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
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